Covid-19 - Mahony Partners

Mar

2021

Looking Ahead to Proxy Season

Like spring blossoms, corporate proxy statements will start to arrive in the coming weeks. They are likely to reflect both the extraordinary events of 2020 and the continuation of trends that have been gathering momentum in recent years. Boards face a big challenge to address these issues effectively, and the quality of their communication will play a central role in winning support from shareholders and the public. Here’s what we are watching: COVID-19 disclosures. Companies have been addressing the impact of the pandemic in their quarterly earnings announcements, and investors have been watching them closely. Indeed, several companies have faced shareholder Read More

Jul

2020

Get Ready for the Executive Pay Backlash

Financial Services

History has a way of repeating itself, particularly in finance. In the last financial crisis a dozen years ago, banks received taxpayer-backed bailouts and paid hefty bonuses to their executives. The uproar was loud and lasting. Now Wall Street seems poised for a repeat, after a massive federal coronavirus stimulus and a liquidity jolt from the Fed fattened the banks’ bottom lines and their bonus reserves. Three big banks – Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley – boosted compensation expense by a third, according to their earnings reports last week. One big difference between this crisis and the last is that federal relief has been spread across many industries, not just banking.... Read More

Apr

2020

Covid-19 is Making Routine Communications Anything But

Crisis

In this charged environment, company actions that ordinarily would be routine can draw intense interest.

Big US banks have had a rough couple of weeks. They choked on requests from small businesses seeking loans under federal Covid-relief programs, while smaller banks and fintech upstarts handled things better, and now it’s apparent that favored bank customers were at the head of the line. Of course, banks aren’t the only ones reeling from the crisis. Nearly every industry is facing unprecedented challenges, from keeping their people and facilities safe to recalibrating supply chains and managing remote workers. Companies are also under greater scrutiny, especially for their treatment of workers. Amazo... Read More